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In 1954, The Bash Street Kids had their first outing and Leo’s class of social misfits and mavericks, such as Erbert, Plug, Smiffy, Spotty, Toots, Wilfrid and Cuthbert, began their long-running antics.

Class 2B remain frozen in the 1950s with wooden desks and a teacher who wears a mortarboard, but delighted generations of readers for more than half a century.

By the mid-1950s, The Beano was selling more than two million copies a week and Leo was their most valuable artist.

“It was exhilarating to do but it was very, very hard,” remembered Leo.

Leo with Minnie The Minx statuette

His drawings were done with passion and intensity, yet he still produced artwork for six or seven pages every week, producing nearly 6,000 pages for the comic industry.

“The Beano was successful because it was full of energy,” he said. “The world of comics is the world of intimate delights. A child holds it in his hand and reads it on his own.”

In 1962 he moved to Wham comic, where his creations included The Barmy Army (a phrase Leo created), Clever Dick and the Badtime Bedtime series.

He moved to Stroud 50 years ago, with his wife Peggy, where he raised his five children.

By the Seventies he was publishing his own books, including his Willy the Kid series and in the Eighties, he published a strip in the Guardian called I Love You Baby Basil.